The pain was now a distant reminder of the torture Ink had been through. With no soul or emotions, he couldn't feel the fear of being hurt again. Only the fear of death, which kept him with Cross and Alphys.

It was bad, to not be able to move without crutches. It limited him from being able to properly move, which did limit his chances of survival.

The three of them would have to stick to the shadows, due to Ink being an easy target for starving people on the street. They had gotten lucky with the first ally being empty, but that didn't mean others would. So Flowey would peak out of the ground to go look into an ally before declaring it safe or unsafe. It it was unsafe, they would simply keep to the shadows and hurry down the street onto the next.

There wasn't much conversation between them, but that was fine. There didn't need to be conversation. They all had the same goal after all, and it was to get to the castle and away from the vampires. 

So, it was odd when Cross suddenly blurted out a question.

"Why do you not have a soul?"

Ink paused, looking over at Cross with a confused glance. Alphys turned around to look at them, and Flowey focused his gaze up at the two skeletons.

"What?" Ink asked, his blank white pupils focusing on Cross' face.

"Well, uh, Alphys had told us that Flowey didn't have a soul because he was created in a lab, and those vial things are made for people with souls who have emotional disabilities," Cross said, "But it should be impossible to not have a soul, because, well, monster bodies form around the soul, and it's how all monsters are born."

"It is what my parents told me," Ink told Cross, "So that is all I am really aware of."

"A-Actually, Cross is right, w-why didn't I-I realize this before..." Alphys asked, "Monsters need a soul to be born... S-So you existing should b-be impossible."

"Then why do I have no soul now?" Ink questioned, tilting his head.

"W-well, it could've been destroyed a-along the way..." Alphys muttered, "Did y-you have any accidents a-as a child?"

"No," Ink said, "I grew up all of my life without a soul, so if it was destroyed, it would've been at birth."

"But why would your soul be destroyed at birth? Were you dropped soul first down a flight of stairs?" Flowey asked.

"There is only one medical condition that contains souls being destroyed at birth, and that's..." Cross trailed off.

"Right'o, seems you finally figured it out," Chara laughed inside of his mind.

"What do you mean?" Cross asked the human within him.

"It was pretty obvious for awhile, I mean, why did it take you so long to finally ask him?" Chara questioned him, "Monsters need souls in order to live, unless artificially created like your little Flower friend over there. So, of course his soul was destroyed after he was born, and you and me have that little condition."

"What i-is it?" Alphys asked Cross.

"Multiple personality disorder," Cross whispered.

~~~~~~

Gaster had told her never to enter that room again, and she of course didn't listen.

Bubbly was curious, and when she was curious, there was no stopping her. She wanted to see the final form of her and his creation, since she did in fact help Gaster build this robot. That's why she was calling it robot, instead of cyborg. She helped build it, so she deserved to at least see it gosh darn it.

So, she didn't know what to expect when she saw the mostly finished project's power source.

A human soul was connected to the main battery.

She had fallen backwards at the sight, almost knocking over a cart but barely avoiding it.

Seeing a soul was like seeing a dead body. Human souls often meant that a human had died there, and no one had absorbed their soul. 

There was a perfectly good explanation for this, right?

There... There had to be! Maybe Gaster had found it on the street and brought it back with him to implant it into the robot to discover who killed the soul? Yeah, maybe he did that!

But it was clear that the soul had been used before to fill the battery, due to it's dull and almost empty color. That would explain the blue glow from the battery before...

It was soul energy...

He was using this soul to power the robot...

Gaster was a murderer.

  《》《》《》 

Sorry for the short chapter, I just wanted to get these two details out before my family comes over today. 

Anyway, have a good day!